Adding M.2_2 For Game M.2 around Christmas

bikemanI7 · Dec 2, 2024

Hello All

Gonna hopefully soon have 2 Samsung M.2 Drives as follows

M2_1: Samsung 990 Evo Plus 1TB is planned to go there, replacing Kingston NV2 1TB Drive (may still use as External at times with USB C M.2 Drive dock) (Possibly just gonna do a clean install on the new Boot Drive)
M2_2: Samsung 990 Pro 1TB (Would Be New Game Drive--(Battlefield 2042, Starfield, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered, American Truck Simulator & Euro Truck SImulator 2

Sata Samsung 860 Evo--May leave in for extra games if wouldn't cause any problems
Extra Games being SecondLife that i don't think needs super fast M.2 Storage lol, Firefighter Simulator the Squad and Police Simulator: Patrol (Good or Bad idea)

Hopefully i don't run into any unforseen issues, and the M2_2 slot standoff and screw is in the screw container if not present on board lol.

I believe i got enough Pcie lanes hopefully to support both drives at PCie 4.0 x4, as specs page shows M2_1 and _2 from CPU

Motherboard is MSI Pro B650 VC Wifi Rev 1.0
Processor: Ryzen 7 7700X
Video card; Radeon 7800XT

bobkn · Dec 2, 2024

The 7700x has 28 PCI-E lanes, 24 free. I believe that's 16 for the graphics slot, and 4 each for the two M.2 slots.

The motherboard manual confirms that you get full support on both M.2 slots.

bikemanI7 · Dec 2, 2024

Yay was reading the manual again here as well while sitting here

Relaxes now and just waits for Christmas to arrive, and gets the newer M.2s installed, and should be totally set after that

Ghot · Dec 2, 2024

bikemanI7 said:
and should be totally set after that

You'll never be "totally set".
There's always a new fangled gadget, just around the corner.

I mean what's gonna happen on Black Friday in 2025 or 2026?

bikemanI7 · Dec 2, 2024

Well i should be set for a while i think lol, don't think gonna get any new hardware for birthday 2 Months after Christmas lol (February lol)

Ghot · Dec 2, 2024

bikemanI7 said:
Well i should be set for a while i think lol, don't think gonna get any new hardware for birthday 2 Months after Christmas lol (February lol)

I dunno. Isn't that when early Income Tax returns start arriving?

BamaInArk · Dec 2, 2024

My recommendation.........put the 990 Pro drive in the M2_1 socket and make that the Boot drive with the OS. Put the 990 EVO Plus in the M2_2 socket to be used as the Game drive. The M2_1 socket uses the CPU Lanes and is better for the OS drive as well as the 990 Pro is a better drive than the 990 EVO Plus. The M2_2 socket runs off the Chipset Lanes.

bikemanI7 · Dec 2, 2024

Oh ok

Remembers this Recommendation then, and goes from there

learning stuff as i go tonight

**I had trouble deciding between Samsung M.2 Drives at first, and Western Digital SN850X drives lol, in the end i selected Samsung as my Previous Sata SSDs and M.2 was Samsung**

ShamrockRig · Dec 3, 2024

Ghot said:
I dunno. Isn't that when early Income Tax returns start arriving?

I would expect so! Thus one waits to see the outcome.

Sorry i couldnt avoid giggling at the talking in third person about ones self

BamaInArk · Dec 3, 2024

The WD SN850X are still very good drives. The Samsung 990 Pro drives came out after and are a little better generally. Price might be the deciding factor here.

bikemanI7 · Dec 3, 2024

Yeah Price deciding factor, and unforuately SN850X out of price range, so sticks with the Samsung Drives after all lol

Anyways i'll be perfectly happy i know, as i was very happy with my Previous Samsung 970 Evo Plus in my old system

Think might do a pre Christmas dust clean out if i get time in coming days lol, and while im doing that, i'll check to see if M2_2 has Standoff and if not get one from the extra screw container and get it installed onto board with its screw. Then should be easy peasy to get drives installed LOL.

M2_1 has Kingston NVMe 1TB NV2 drive in it with its screw, so that one be super easy, may have to temporarily move video card to get to it though, but not a big deal i installed the video card myself when system arrived in July 2024. Besides i can clean video card fans with my cordless air duster before reinstalling and reconnecting power.

PerpetualCycle · Dec 3, 2024

Why not get one 2TB drive? Then you have another slot for expansion. You could configure the drive into 2 partitions and you probably will not need s TB for the system drive.

Right now the 2tb 990 pro is $40 less than 2 1TB 990 pro.

bikemanI7 · Dec 3, 2024

Well i'm the type that likes to keep my OS Drive & Game drive separate

System came with a 1TB Boot drive with the Kingston NV2 NVME PCie 4 budget Drive

Ibuypower Ready build--with the exact specs i was dreaming of for a long time..
My First Ryzen based Desktop with Radeon video card
In the Case i was dreaming of getting for my old I7 10700 system for a long time as well
Extremely happy though with my AMD Ryzen build

My plan is to eventually get another case at some point and rebuild the Intel I7 system into that, replace its power supply possibly as well, and then put that in service as 3rd Household PC, replacing 2011 AMD Liano APU A6 3620 build--if it ever works out where i can afford the desired case with adequate cooling.
((currently I7 10700 installed in Thermaltake V200 TG RGB case)

((main reason getting 2 Samsung NVMe's, so both drives are from same manufactuer, and then i only need one Management program--example Samsung Magician to maintain all drives, versus now Kingston Management software and Magician to manage the current Sata Game SSD

Plus i feel it makes easier backups

**I never partitioned a drive on any of my former systems, perhaps i should learn how to at some point, but never ever done it in the past at all**

PerpetualCycle · Dec 3, 2024

bikemanI7 said:
Well i'm the type that likes to keep my OS Drive & Game drive separate

System came with a 1TB Boot drive with the Kingston NV2 NVME PCie 4 budget Drive

Ibuypower Ready build--with the exact specs i was dreaming of for a long time..
My First Ryzen based Desktop with Radeon video card
In the Case i was dreaming of getting for my old I7 10700 system for a long time as well
Extremely happy though with my AMD Ryzen build

My plan is to eventually get another case at some point and rebuild the Intel I7 system into that, replace its power supply possibly as well, and then put that in service as 3rd Household PC, replacing 2011 AMD Liano APU A6 3620 build--if it ever works out where i can afford the desired case with adequate cooling.
((currently I7 10700 installed in Thermaltake V200 TG RGB case)

((main reason getting 2 Samsung NVMe's, so both drives are from same manufactuer, and then i only need one Management program--example Samsung Magician to maintain all drives, versus now Kingston Management software and Magician to manage the current Sata Game SSD

Plus i feel it makes easier backups

**I never partitioned a drive on any of my former systems, perhaps i should learn how to at some point, but never ever done it in the past at all**

I like to keep my games and system drive separate too, especially for backup purposes
That is why I mentioned the partitioning. You could partition the drive in two 1TB partitions, C: on one and the games on another, say G: You can image backup the C: partition without only, without the G: partition and vice versa. That is what I do.

There was a weak argument for separate drives for sequential HDD for performance reasons. Such considerations are not a concern with random access and high speed SSD. Besides, you really access the system while playing games and vice versa.

I had my separate nvme drives for my games and system until just recently. I had the system nvme on the CPU PCI-E and games on the chipset PCI-E - bought a 4 TB drive, partitioned as describe above, then move my games to the game partition.

Both games and system are on the CPU PCI-E now.

Anyhow, just another option,

bikemanI7 · Dec 3, 2024

Well have learned a bit with this topic already

Guess for now will decide what fully to do once the drives arrive

who knows maybe in the future i'll upgrade my Secondary Gaming Laptop and can re purpose one of the drives and grab a 2TB NVMe for the first time on Main Desktop, and try first time partitioning ever in my life lol.

Probably too late to cancel order of the two drives, and i don't drive real life, so returning not easy for me

so probably just stick with seperate drives for now, and in the future try for the first time a partitoned drive if i ever need more space or a reason to switch to a Larger than 1TB drive happens

((Yes i know the drives were ordered as family member that placed the order for Christmas--asked me to confirm those 2 drives was exactly what i wanted))

bikemanI7 · Dec 8, 2024

Pictures of the M.2 Slots as best i can get them right now

I know not the best pictures, i'll try to get clearer pictures when its daylight if need be--or when i do dust clean out if i do one prior to installing the NEW M.2 Drives

First Picture is of M2_2 Slot
((I assume this one will need a standoff))

Second Picture is M2_1 Slot (First one on board)

Do have a quick latch thing further ahead of M.2 2280 location, could i use that for PCie Slot 2, and then i don't have to search the little screw box for M.2 Standoff for Slot 2 lol

((Yes i know i got some dusting to do as soon as i possibly can))

Probably should've taken these pictures in daylight so i wouldn't had the flash reflect on the glass oops, or when i was doing dust clean out i should've grabbed these last month

Adding M.2_2 For Game M.2 around Christmas

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computers

Rock H Semi Erin Go Bragh

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computers

Syzygy

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computers

Syzygy

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

Attachments

My Computers

Similar threads